Rosa Maria loves to cook meals for her family and begins planning for her granddaughter's upcoming birthday party in one week. Sunday, she plans the menu, orders the gift, and sets a mousetrap before she goes to bed. Monday, she does the laundry, but finds a napkin missing. She sets another mousetrap before bed. Tuesday she goes to market and orders the cake. She sets another mousetrap before bed. Wednesday, she prepares the enchiladas, notices some piñata feathers are missing, and sets another mousetrap before bed. Thursday, she simmers the beans and sets another mousetrap. Friday she picks up the cake and candles but now her bolsa is missing. She sets another mousetrap before bed. Saturday, she cooks the rice, sets the table, makes lemonade, but finds a candle missing. Her family arrives, eat all the wonderful food and cake, open the gifts, and ran to the piñata. As the children swing at it, Rosa Maria remembers that she never filled the piñata, but somehow it has been filled with candy. She figures she did it without remembering. As Rosa Maria cleans up after the party, she finds signs of mice, and realizes they had filled the piñata for her. She leaves leftovers out for her helpful mice and they enjoy a fiesta of their own in their mouse hole.

I really liked this book for the storyline and the writing. I realized after reading this book that the author is the same author who wrote Esperanza Rising. The writing in this book was in English and Spanish. The sentences had words or phrases in Spanish. For example, “Que boba soy! Silly me, I must have forgotten again!” the words and phrases, when set into context made sense, even to someone who doesn’t know Spanish. There is also a glossary of the terms in the back of the book as well as a recipe for the Rice and Beans she was making in the story. Also throughout the book there were a few phrases and thoughts that were repeated multiple times. This helped the progression of the book and made it interesting. The storyline was also really good in this book. It went through the days of the week leading up to the party on each page. It showed the progression of events and helped with the repeating phrases. The main idea of this story is family and the importance of finding new friends in unlikely situations. ( )

In Ryan’s Mice and Beans, a grandmother is busy planning a party for her granddaughter while trying to prevent any mice from “ruining” the grand event. The extensive process and behind the scenes planning reveals how significant family events and people are in the [Latino] culture and how they are highly valued.I was glad to have had the chance to read this book by Pam Munoz Ryan. I had read Esperanza Rising for my Lit Circle book so it was a nice shift in writing style and imagery to see from her. Mice and Beans is an extremely humorous and lively book. The illustrations are brightly colored and very expressive. The reader gets a sense of the hectic-ness of the story and is able to become engaged with it as well. The amount of activity and movement with the pictures is not only aesthetically pleasing, but contributes a great amount to how the book is read.

Wikipedia in English

"When there's room in the heart, there's room in the house, except for a mouse." Those are the words that Rosa María remembers (an old saying from her mother) as she's preparing for the birthday of Little Catalina, her soon-to-be 7-year-old granddaughter. She's hoping to squeeze the entire family into her tiny casita for a fiesta with enchiladas, rice and beans ("no dinner was complete without rice and beans!"), birthday cake, a brand-new swing set, and even a piñata packed with candy.

But in the week before the party, there's so much to keep track of ("I am so busy that I'm forgetting to remember!") that she's just not sure she'll have everything ready. And to top it off, she keeps forgetting to set mousetraps for all the ratones scurrying around her home... or does she? She might not know it yet, but Rosa María lives with some pretty clever mice.

Illustrator Joe Cepeda's forgetful abuelita is a riot as she preps for the party, with her giant red glasses and braided blonde hair like a loaf of bread. Those frisky little rodents also manage to put on quite a show scrabbling around the vibrantly colored casita. Pam Muñoz Ryan's expert timing, rhythmic repetition, and skillfully sprinkled Spanish (with pronunciation glossary in the back) keep the story moving muy rápido, and the party--of course--turns out wonderfully, but with at least one good surprise. Maybe Rosa María misheard her mother's saying about those mice after all. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes

In this rhythmic cumulative tale Rosa Maria spends the week getting ready for her granddaughter's birthday party and trying to avoid attracting mice--unaware that the mice in her walls are preparing for a party of their own.